January 25th, 2010 | Posted by Toffler in marketplace - (Comments Off on For Teachers: Offering Spring Packages)

Teachers, if you’d like to participate in offering Spring Packages as we mentioned in this post, there are a few things you need to do.

1st: Set up packages on your profile. You can create a new course linked with packages or transfer your 1-on-1 tutoring to a package offering.

2nd: Make sure the package consists of 10 sessions, 1 hour each. Just for this Spring Packages, we’re trying to keep everything consistent. Your other packages can be whatever combination you want.

3rd: Set the package price at around 20% discount off your per session price. It doesn’t have to be exact, but it should be enough of a discount to make the package more appealing than per session booking.

4th: When that’s all set up, send an email to teacherhelp [at] italki.com, requesting to be included in the Spring Packages page. If we approve your request, you’ll be added to the list of teachers offering packages.

And that’s it. Please join us in giving students more choices of language learning packages.

Last month we launched Packages, multiple sessions booked together with one teacher. As with any new feature, some people are a bit unsure how make good use of it, so we asked a few teachers to help us show off their best package offerings. So far eight teachers have agreed to help. (If you’re a teacher and would like to participate, please read this post.)

All of the offerings from these eight teachers are packages of 10 lessons, 1 hour per lesson, covering a certain course the teacher has agreed to teach. These 10 lessons can be scheduled at the convenience of the teacher and student, 1 per week or even 1 per day! Various topics include Japanese Conversation, British Current Affairs, and French Culture. To book any of the packages with the teacher, first make sure you have enough ITC in your account for the whole package, and then just choose your favorite topic and favorite teacher. The teachers listed on that page are all eager to help you learn their languages!

January 18th, 2010 | Posted by Toffler in marketplace | members - (Comments Off on Teaching Japanese on italki: Annie)

In previous posts, we introduced active italki students, Simon and Ken. In this Q&A, you’ll learn a little bit more about teaching online as we introduce italki teacher, Annie from Japan. Annie is one of our top teachers. She has experience teaching at a cram school, including teaching English to Japanese children. [Original in English, edited.]

When did you start teaching on italki?
I started last May.

Why did you choose to teach online and why italki?
Teaching online doesn’t cost me at a thing: No commuting expense, no telephone charges when using Skype, no special clothing expenses, no cosmetics, and the work time is short . (#^.^#) Moreover, I can teach when I‘m free at home. The teaching system in italki is very simple and easy for me.

What efforts did you use to find students on italki? Or did the students find you?
Nothing special.

Did you teach offline before you started teaching online?
Yes, but when teaching Japanese offline that was just teaching friends for free.

What tools do you use to teach online?
Besides Skype, depending on the students, we also use various Japanese materials. If they need me to provide the Japanese sources, I send them the text. However, if they want to use their own textbooks, they send it to me instead.

Are there any special skills needed to teach online?
For me to teach, I need strong English skills to make myself or the language very clearly understood. English communication is very important unless the student already has a high level of Japanese.

Overall, what do you think about teaching on italki? Any last words?
italki is a nice system at least for me. If really pressed, I’d have to say the money withdrawal system is a little difficult for me to use. That’s all.

December 28th, 2009 | Posted by Toffler in marketplace | members - (Comments Off on Learning Chinese on italki: Ken)

Here is another story of an italki member learning a foreign language with a teacher online. Ken is from Osaka, Japan and spends a lot of time traveling for work, therefore he needs a flexible arrangement for learning Chinese.

[Translated from Japanese, original is below.] I joined italki almost 2 years ago. I started online lessons at the beginning of this year.

In Japan the fee of the language lesson is extremely expensive, and it is easy to forget everything if you have only one lesson a week, so I chose italki where I can learn everyday with local teachers. I initially did the trial lesson with several teachers. Now I study with only one teacher. [I chose this teacher because] she is very kind when she teaches and she also generously spares her time, even very early in the morning.

[I started learning Chinese because] I wanted to talk more with my Chinese friends. I feel that I progress day by day. Taking lessons everyday makes it easier to review the contents of the previous lesson and remember things more clearly.

[As for learning online,] recently, Skype has been working well, so there’s no such a big problem if you use it with video. I’m kind of an idle fellow, so it offers better condition to study continuously rather than to study by myself. I’m hoping italki will continue to make a user friendly system, and I expect them to succeed!